I like bands. I like the idea of a bunch of dudes traveling the country together in a van playing music. These dudes sound only like themselves, and that sound, forged over years of playing in loud, sweaty clubs, is what keeps us all coming back. Record after record, tour after tour. These folkloric musical […]

On May 8, I boarded a flight to New York City for the first time. I was on my way to the 2013 Essentially Ellington Festival, one of the most unique music festivals for high school students in the world. Created in 1995 by the fantastic people at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the festival celebrates […]

Without question, Chicago-based pianist, vocalist, composer and bandleader Patricia Barber is one of the most passionate and eloquent artists on the scene today. When she is not maintaining a weekly Monday night gig with her quartet at the Green Mill in Chicago, she is constantly touring throughout all parts of the world, and on June […]

To the general public, a seventeen-year-old kid who is genuinely enthused and inspired about this thing called jazz may be a strange and confusing phenomenon. Perhaps it’s the fact that jazz musicians don’t study through a widely-recognized conservatory—although I personally have, and for me conservatory training has no negative connotations whatsoever. Or perhaps it’s the […]